Mechanization of Palmyrah Peeling Process to Promote Palmyrah based Products

Abstract

Palmyrah (Borrssas flabellifer L.) is a multipurpose perennial crop with more than 80 years of economic life span and is important in waste land development, for food and ecological security, and as a livelihood. Although, the juice extraction from peeled Palmyrah fruits is properly mechanized, the peeling of fruits is not yet mechanized and thus has become a limiting factor to promote the juice extraction technology. Therefore, to increase the annual Palmyrah juice production, an efficient way of peeling as an alternative to manual peeling should be introduced. Therefore, the goal of this study was to introduce tipie and labour efficient mechanical method to peel off the Palmyrah fruit. Before designing this Palmyrah peeling machine, a preliminary study was carried out to understand the arrangement of fiber in the peel and all the required dimensions of the fruit. As the major components of this machine the set of peeling blades, set of hooks, adjustable fruit holder, operating handle and peel collector were identified. After a series of trials and modifications, final prototype machine was fabricated and the performance was compared to manual peeling. Theoretical capacities of the machine and manual peeling were 72 and 59 fruits per hour, respectively. Actual capacities of the machine and manual peeling were recorded as 65 and 51 fruits per hour, respectively. Efficiencies of machine and manual method were 90% and 86%, respectively. There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between performance of peeling machine and manual method.